Roof collapse triggers interest in Mt. Rose’s funky old lodge
Rosemount Lodge in winter 1957. Photo/Vonderheide Collection
By Alison Bender, Tahoe Quarterly
Reindeer Lodge, located on a horseshoe curve along Mount Rose Highway between the ski resorts and Reno, has seen much in its 60 years of existence.
It’s seen the old Reno Ski Bowl morph into Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe. It’s seen generations of UNR students as they drank hot-buttered rums and danced to popular music. It’s seen huge snowstorms, like in the spring of 1958, when residents and guests were trapped, the highway buried under several feet of snow.
Change came to the lodge, as well.
What was once the Rosemount Lodge, an upscale establishment catering to local skiers, changed names and operators multiple times on its path to becoming the funky property known as Reindeer Lodge. In the record-breaking winter of 2016–17, after years of disrepair, the roof collapsed, feet of snow caving in around the fireplace that had for decades warmed skiers coming off the slopes.